In the annals of popular music, this CD is a bit of an outlaws tale. After this album came out in the mid 1970's, Nashville's total dominance of Country & Western was ended. Austin Texas, a sleepy small town in the middle of the Lone Star State, became a rival center for country, blues, rock, and other music genres.

Willie & Waylon contribute most of the sound, style, and songs here. Perhaps this is to be expected, since they were already "names" at the time this CD was originally released: Waylon as a performer, Willie as a songwriter. But Jessi Colter has a great voice, and Tompall Glaser provides great instumental accompaniment as the rhythm section.

Willie and Waylon were pure gold after this, and while Jessi Colter & Tompall Glaser were not heard from much afterward, they do live on here.

Waylon Jennings had several big singles and successful concert tours after he and Willie Nelson went their separate ways. But even so, his biggest applause came when he did the tunes from this CD. Sadly, Waylon Jennings declined and was in ill health during most of the 1990's. Willie Nelson has managed to sustain a career full of comebacks -- the IRS, marijuana arrests, and an occasional flop album have all failed to stop him from becoming an (admittedly unlikely) popular folk-hero.

Like "The Weavers at Carnegie hall", which is often credited with launching a folk music revival, and the early Beatles & Stones albums which generated interested in anything that came from England, this album is often credited with the birth of "alt Country".

Because of its maverick style and content (more radical at the time than today), it has retained or obtained a status that few country and western CD's ever do: IT'S COOL.


Credit where credit is due   November 7, 2004
 20 out of 20 found this review helpful

WANTED! THE OUTLAWS has been named the most influential country CD of all time (I'm not making that up, I just forget where I heard it). Listen to it, and understand why--every song on here, even the Waylon/Jessi version of "Suspicious Minds"--reeks of country music. This is the album--with a few tweaks, I believe--that spawned the music you listen to today. What self-respecting modern-day singer/songwriter doesn't count Willie and Waylon as influences (and most, if you question them enough, will spurt out Jessi Colter's name as well).

What makes this CD so delictable, aside from it's impressive talent credits (add in Tompall Glaser, who--through a most unfortunate twist of fate--has had his fame pale next to his partners in crime) and superb songwriting? Maybe it's its blend of styles. A pure, solid country backbone, with a rock n roll sex appeal. A honky-tonk drinkin attitude, with a love-ballad aftertaste. Waylon Jennings growls out the lyrics to Billy Joe Shaver's "Honky Tonk Heroes" with experience and subtle dignity. Jessi Coulter stands up for herself in the face of heartbreak in her own "You Mean to Say." Willie Nelson laments and celebrates his travels in "Me and Paul." Tompall Glaser (who only has two tracks here) gets bluesy on Jimmy Rodger's ramblin "T for Texas", and belts out wry irony in the Shel Silverstein ("A Boy Named Sue")-penned "Put Another Log on the Fire."

WANTED! THE OUTLAWS. If you haven't heard it yet, you must. Along with a few other CD's (Willie's RED-HEADED STRANGER and Johnny Cash's LIVE AT FOLSOM PRISON come immediately to mind), this album helped establish country music as cool. Not that country's status changed these guys (and gal) any: they continued to be outlaws long after this recording became a smash, and are still outlaws today, if only in memory. A tribute to honky tonks and never-ending love, WANTED! THE OUTLAWS is an absolutely timeless piece of true, uninhibited music.


A wonderful collaboration!   March 24, 2002
 13 out of 14 found this review helpful

Nashville's rebels and outlaws are back! Waylon and Willie's original "Outlaws" CD is titled, 20th Anniversary CD. It includes the originals, the lost songs, and the new, a total of 21. Included is Waylon's wife Jessie Colter, who I believe had a modest career of her own, her most popular, or as they say, signature song, a beautiful ballad "I'm Not Jessie"

The combined talent of Nashville rebels, Waylon and Willie was phenomenal! With different vocal styles, their teaming was a major success! Nelson's nasal sound worked well with deeper vocals of Waylon. Tompall Glaser, I can't say I had heard about him, but he does "Tea for Texas" and the catchy sexist tune by Shel Silverstein "Put Another Log on the Fire". ......fill my pipe and then go fetch my slippers and boil me up another pot of tea, then put another log on the fire and come and tell me why you're leaving me.

"Me and Paul" has always been a favorite by Willie, here his deeper voice projects. That and "Yesterday's Wine" are both written by Willie Nelson. Also included on the original LP are "Heroes have Always been Cowboys." Jessie and Waylon do their hit "Suspicious Minds." Twenty years later, a 1996 anniversary CD is a classic timepiece and includes the lost songs, these do include several more by Jessie Colter, who lends a very soothing beautiful voice to the male dominated CD. She and Waylon do "Under Your Spell."

The "new" portion stated on the CD includes rockabilly and folk singer Steve Earle's hit "Nowhere Road" done by Waylon and Willie. Steve Earle produced this anniversary CD. I love the two Willie Nelson ballads "Healing Hands" and "You Left a Long Time Ago", a very soft, mellow song about watching and losing a love. A first-rate collection, a real classic! ...MzRizz


Love this album   April 5, 2000
 8 out of 9 found this review helpful

I remember listening to this as a kid as we hurtled down the highway in the family van while looking out for smokeys on the CB! Fantastic tunes. Couldn't get any better -- until they remastered it on CD!


a childhood memory, an adult treasure   March 13, 2002
 8 out of 8 found this review helpful

I remember back in the late 70's sitting in the back of my parents car on numerous roadtrips across Texas listening to this album. Now even though I was into rock and roll at the time, this album still held my attention on those long trips. I bought my own copy a few weeks ago when I heard that Waylon had passed to that great honky tonk in the sky. Man what a great album! My boyhood memories have been coming back to me with each listen. There is not a weak track on this record, with many of them finding their way to Willie and Waylons greatest hits albums. As mentioned by earlier reviewers, Jesse Colter is the hidden gem of this album. The album includes ten new tracks that did not make the original cut, but are all strong. "Why you been gone so long" by Jesse is really outstanding. Finally, the newest track "Nowhere Road" is a Steve Earle song recorded in 1996 by Willie and Waylon (Earle produced it). All I can say is this song should be playing on country radio right now, as its better that 99.9% of all the current country tunes. Do yourself a favor and add this album to your collection. Put it on, sit back and listen, you might be able to imagine what the Austin outlaw country scene was like in the late 70's!